Healing Begins

    Check out this incredible message from Mike Donehey, the lead singer of Tenth Avenue North.

    He makes the amazing point that we must lean on God to help carry our burdens and struggles, and that the healing of God's grace is truly brought out when we bring our troubles before others. We can't rely on our own strength. When we pray for each other, and we all lean on God and each other, we experience incredible healing.

Who Said This Was Supposed to be Easy?

    I read the book, Radical, by David Platt, recently, and like its title this book has truly had radical effects on the way I look at my walk with God and the way I live my life. I've taken away much from reading it, but right now I wanted to focus quickly on something that I picked up from the book that's been on my heart lately.

    (Also, I know it's been over a week since I last posted; I'm not dead, however my mom's computer died, so since I've been home my computer has become the family computer, which severely limits my access to it.)

    A very profound truth that I discovered in Radical was the uncommon idea that a life lived in Christ will not be easy. Now some of you might ask, "Why wouldn't it be easy? I thought God made stuff easy for us when we follow Him."

    It's not easy because it isn't supposed to be easy.

    The biggest misconception of the life of one who follows Christ is that once you give your life to God completely, everything will fall into place and you'll never any problems ever again. Ever. Unfortunately, this isn't the case.

    Remember when Jesus says, "In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33b)? He's saying that we will always have struggles in this world, but to have faith in Him; He is bigger than the world.

    But the struggles we face shouldn't come as a surprise, even if we think that Jesus just sets every challenge straight for us. Jesus faced struggles in His time here as well. He was tempted, just as we are. The difference is He never sinned; He never gave in to the temptations, but instead cast them out. And just like Jesus was tempted and tried by the world, so are we.

    Because we serve and put our faith in Him, we will look different to the world, just like He did. Jesus told the world what it needed to hear, which was exactly what the world didn't, and still doesn't, want to hear. When we truly live our lives for Christ, we will look different to the world. We will sound different to the world, and we will behave far differently than the world does.

    And the world will not like it.

    But the world reacted the same way to Jesus. The world hated Jesus. So if we live our lives as Christ calls us to, the world should hate us. And being creatures that naturally long for acceptance, being hated isn't something we look forward to.

    So we will always face struggles, and people will hate us for the way we live. We will be tried, tempted, and worn down to the breaking point. It won't be easy. But it was never supposed to be. Besides, how can we truly show our love for Jesus if living for Him was easy? We have so much more to look forward to with Him than what the world can distract us with. This life will bring struggles, but at the end is a heavenly reward.

    "I have overcome the world."

Abraham Part II

    “Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Do not stretch your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. 13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.’” -Genesis 22:9-14 (NASB)

    
    This is the second half, the ending, of the story of Abraham’s sacrifice; or almost-sacrifice, as told by this ending of the story. In the entry from earlier, I talked about how we shouldn’t hold our earthly blessings too close to us, letting them get in the way of God in our lives. Often we’ll find that God will ask us to give up what we hold most closely in our lives.
    
    In this case, what was held most closely by Abraham was Isaac. I still can’t wrap my mind around having to give up a son whom I held more dearly than I could possibly imagine, especially since I’d waited for a century to get him.
    
    I also talked in the last entry about how much composure it must’ve taken for Abraham to keep Isaac’s future at the time a secret. But what about the moment he was standing over his son, who was tied to an altar, with a knife in his hand? As if having to walk with the sacrifice (who happens to be your son) up the mountain wasn’t bad enough.
    
    The next part is probably one of my favorite parts of a story from the Bible. Just when Abraham is about to sacrifice his one and only son on God’s command, God sends an angel down to stop Abraham.
    
    I always picture this in my mind: the altar is built, Isaac tied to it. I can’t help but assume that Abraham was crying. Any person with even a shred of emotion couldn’t fight back tears. The hand with the knife fully extended, and right as the arm is set to swing down and end the life of God’s most precious gift to Abraham, an angel appears. He in turn reaches out and stops Abraham’s motion.
    
    Every time I think of this, I feel chills run through my body. I guess it’s the thought of how much God truly loves me. Abraham followed God’s command to sacrifice his son, but as it says in verse 12, because he showed no intentions of withholding Isaac, God would keep Isaac and Abraham together and bless them even more than before.
    
    I’m certain it’s the same way with us. Maybe not this extreme, but I think that we often forget that sometimes, in order to gain what we truly desire in Heaven, we might have to give up what we love here on Earth. But we shouldn’t forget something very important.
    
    God loves us. He doesn’t want just robotic love; he wants real, genuine love. That’s why He checks us, to make sure that we’ve still got Him at numero uno. Remember, He wants us to be happy. He wants us have good things. And He will always provide.

Abraham

    “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 2 He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.’ 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. 5 Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.’ 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ 8 Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.” -Genesis 22:1-8 (NASB)

    When I read this verse, I’m yet again reminded of how grateful I am that God doesn’t directly test my faith in the way that He tested Abraham’s in this story. This still baffles me to this day, the way Abraham is able to keep his composure through all of this. 
    
    Think about it, God just asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, the one he had waited for until he was literally a hundred years old; the same son whom Abraham loved more than life itself. I wonder if this is why God tested Abraham with such a drastic request.
    
    I wonder if God was just checking up on Abraham, trying to make sure that he didn’t place Isaac before the One who gave him such a blessing. It makes sense when you think about it. Why not test a man’s faith in his creator with what he holds most dearly on this world? And it’s not like we’re really giving up much, compared to what God gave up for us.
    
    Jesus is worth more than anything we think we couldn’t lose, which just goes to show how often we forget that what we have isn’t ours. God gave it to us, so He could just as quickly take it away. I’m always impressed with how well Abraham was able to hold himself together on the way up the mountain, as he was able to respond to Isaac’s question about what the sacrifice would be with a simple yet profound answer. 
    
    God will provide. Isaac was given to God because it made Abraham happy, just like the things He gives us while we’re here. But the great thing is that He wants us to be happy. He wants us have good things. And He will always provide.

Why Worry?

    “’For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?’” -Matthew 6:25-27 (NASB)

    I always wonder what the world would be like if people didn't have the ability to worry. I’m serious. Think about if anxiety wasn't an emotion. I feel like a lot us can’t imagine a world like that (me included, I can’t quite visualize it either) because worry plays such a prominent role in how we live our everyday lives. We are constantly concerned about anything and everything life throws in our faces, down the most trivial things.

    I really appreciate this verse because of how much we worry in an average day. If your day is anything like mine, it doesn't take me five minutes into the day to become worried that I've woken up three minutes before a class that takes me ten minutes to get to starts. Throughout the day, it's one thing after another.

    But this verse says to not worry about your life. Don't worry about what’s going to happen. I think that’s why we can’t imagine life without worry, why it’s become such a huge part of our thought process. We don’t want life’s curve balls to come at us while we’re unprepared. Of course, in moderation, this isn't a bad thought process to practice. Being prepared is good; quite frankly it’s a bit foolish to just run around in life doing everything on the fly. 
    
    But I think where we get it wrong is what we put into that category of “life’s curve balls”. We seem to have put trivial things like the way we look at one day on the same level as our relationship with Jesus. I love verse 27 when it says, “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?” We put so much focus on what we think we can control, when really we can’t control what God doesn't let us.
    
    Bad things are going to happen. They always have, they always do, they always will. But there’s so much more to life, so much more that God has blessed us with than everyday trifles that have no other purpose than to take our focus off of those blessings.
    
    I bet if we step back at the end of each day and measure out literally every good thing versus every bad thing that happened to us, a good nine out of ten times the good outweighs the bad. So remember how much we’re blessed and how little we can control. It’s for this reason that trust in God is so important; it helps us sustain this outlook on life.
    
    When we trust that God has got everything under control for us, we don’t have to worry. He’ll take care of us. God’s got your back.

"Is Heaven For Me?"

    My dad and I were having one of our deep discussions (discussions that I’ve found to be of an enormous help in my life), when the subject of a man named Jeffrey Dahmer came up. I had never heard of the man before.

    So Dad proceeds to tell the story of how Jeffrey Dahmer became one the most infamous criminals in American history. Between the late 1970s and early 1990s, Dahmer was one of the worst serial killers this country has ever seen. Over the time period of thirteen years, Dahmer murdered seventeen men and boys, usually picking them up at bars and offering them a drink at his apartment. From there he would drug them into submission, and begin what are some of the vilest acts a human can commit.

    His murders and sex offenses were particularly egregious, involving rape, torture, dismemberment, and even cannibalism. When Dahmer was eventually arrested in 1991, the officers who arrested him found at least four severed heads, along with severed body parts and pictures of severed body parts in his apartment. Needless to say, Jeffrey Dahmer was very messed up.

    But God works in ways that are nothing short of incredible and unlikely. While in prison in Wisconsin, a local Church of Christ preacher named Roy Ratliff came to minister to Dahmer. After studying and praying with Ratliff for many months, Dahmer made the decision to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and was baptized into Christ.

    In 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison by a fellow inmate. His killer beat him severely with the handle of a broomstick, and Dahmer died of head trauma two days later. Most seemed pleased to hear about his death, despite his public acceptance of Jesus. But the question everyone wants to ask about Jeffrey Dahmer is, “Did he make it into Heaven?”

    Ratliff provided insight into Dahmer’s thinking in the words he spoke at Dahmer’s funeral, saying, “Jeff confessed to me his great remorse for his crimes. He wished he could do something for the families of his victims to make it right, but there was nothing he could do. He turned to God because there was no one else to turn to, but he showed great courage in his daring to ask the question, ‘Is heaven for me too?’ I think many people are resentful of him for asking that question. But he dared to ask, and he dared to believe the answer.''

    A lot of us of the Christian faith, me included, have and still do ask the question, “Is Heaven for me?” “Do I belong in Heaven?” The answer is very clear. John 14:6 says is the verse in which Jesus tells His disciples that He is the way, and the truth, and the life. NO ONE goes to see God except through Him. Simply believing that God is real isn’t enough; when you truly accept in your heart that Jesus is your savior, Jesus is all you need, He will know you. And when He knows you, you join Him in Heaven.

    Everyone knows John 3:16, and knows that it says that God sent Jesus to die for our sins, and that whoever believes that He is our savior will live in Heaven eternally. But there’s more to it than that. There’s more to it because people will ask, as in Dahmer’s case, what happens if you don’t live a life in Christ? What if you commit horrible crimes against your fellow man? What if you can never prove that you’ve turned your life over to Christ?

    I think the problem with the question people ask about Dahmer’s eternal faith is most people ask it as if they can see straight into his heart, when the fact is, they can’t. Only God can. We aren’t fit to judge the fate of others because we don’t know the whole story. In the eye of the world, Jeffrey Dahmer was nothing but a sick, cold-blooded serial killer and sex offender who had no purpose but to fill his sadistic cravings.

    But to God, Jeffrey Dahmer is a man who spent almost all of his life feeling empty and filling those empty holes with all of the wrong things. To God, Jeffrey Dahmer is a man who realized just in time that what he had done was wrong and that God held him accountable for his actions. But there’s a catch.

    Unlike us human beings, God does not measure sins to different degrees of severity. To us, lying to your teacher about why your homework isn’t done is far less serious than murdering your neighbor. To God, they are the same thing. Seventeen lies told equals seventeen murders on God’s scale (which more closely resembles a level playing field). Now I would be kidding myself if I said that makes perfect sense to me, because it doesn’t. But I’m not God. I’m just a person.

    But there is hope, because in case you’ve forgotten…

    We serve a forgiving God! Yes we have screw ups, yes our lives are riddled with sin, but in the end, if we ask God for forgiveness, He will give it to us. And not only does He forgive us, He forgets the sin. To God, Jeffrey Dahmer was a man who, when he had nowhere else to turn, turned to Him. When Jeffrey Dahmer had nothing else to lean on, when nothing left in this world could fill his emptiness; he leaned on God, and was satisfied.

    Jeffrey Dahmer did horrible things in this world, and did them with the knowledge that they were atrocious acts against others and him. But in the end, he found God. He realized that his mistakes could be forgiven, as foreign as that idea might seem to some. All he had to do was accept Jesus into his heart.

    Did Jeffrey Dahmer make it to Heaven? I think he did. I like to believe that he was completely genuine in his repentance and acceptance of Jesus into his heart. God looks at our hearts and forgives our sins when we come before Him and ask Him to, no matter how many there are and how horrid they are. He loves us, and wants us to join Him.

    Why should Jeffrey Dahmer be any different?

Inside Out

    My favorite worship song is one that we sing rather frequently at the weekly devotionals my church holds; it holds a lot of meaning for my life and why I believe in Jesus. The song is called "From the Inside Out." Originally written and sung by Hillsong United, it has a very powerful message that resonates whenever it is sung by a group gathered together.

    The lyrics are as follows:

A thousand times I've failed, still Your mercy remains,

And should I stumble again, still I'm caught in Your grace.

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades,

Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame.

My heart and my soul, I give You control,

Consume me from the inside out, Lord.

Let justice and praise become my embrace,

To love you from the inside out.

Your will above all else, my purpose remains,

The art of losing myself in bringing You praise.

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades,

Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame.

My heart and my soul, I give You control,

Consume me from the inside out, Lord.

Let justice and praise become my embrace,

To love you from the inside out.

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades,

Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame.

And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise,

From the inside out, Lord my soul cries out.

    The message in this song is very clearly represented, but it is very powerful. The song starts off saying, "A thousand times I've failed..." How true is that? It couldn't be more true for me. I mess up so many times in a single day it really isn't funny. But despite all of that, God is still there, waiting for me to ask Him to help me through my struggles.

    And it gets even better! If I get tripped up by my sinful desires again, His grace is waiting right next to me, getting ready to catch me. This isn't a one time deal, either. Just like His light shining, His grace is and always will be there to sustain us.

    But of all of the words in this song, the part that hits me the hardest when I actually think about what the lyrics are saying is the line, "Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades." This part of the song means so much to me because it is a reminder that the God I love and live for is truly everlasting. He was there in the beginning, He is here now, and He will be here even if nothing else is.

    I love songs like this. I love being able to pour my heart out to God in song, and also be reminded that His glory is greater than anything I can comprehend. And because of this glory, I have to lose myself, my sense of pride, my sense of personal right in order to give it all up and give God all of the praise I can possibly give.

    That is the kind of praise we should give God every time we worship. Praise filled with everything we've got.